Increased protection with plastic and Silicone

In 2007, the first hol­low com­pos­ite insu­la­tors left the pro­duc­tion floor of Maschi­nen­fab­rik Rein­hausen (MR) under the brand name ReCoTec® (Rein­hausen Com­pos­ite Tech­nol­o­gy). Since then, Recotec® insu­la­tors have been tak­ing over the mar­ket.

The hol­low com­pos­ite insu­la­tor in the lob­by of the plant in Haslbach is No. 001 of the pro­duc­tion batch for the first-ever deliv­ery of ReCoTec® insu­la­tors, which left the plant on 9 May 2007. (© Rein­hausen Pow­er Com­pos­ites)

The earth quakes. Seis­mome­ters show a 6 on the Richter scale and the pri­ma­ry sub­sta­tion expe­ri­ences some very pow­er­ful shak­ing. Yet every­thing is fine. All the bush­ings and insu­la­tors make it through the intense quak­ing unscathed and pow­er can con­tin­ue to flow. This is the result every grid oper­a­tor hopes for in this kind of extreme sit­u­a­tion.

Out­doors, how­ev­er, insu­la­tors are also exposed to many oth­er stress­es. They col­lect a remark­able amount of con­t­a­m­i­na­tion par­tic­u­lar­ly in indus­tri­al regions, near refiner­ies, in regions with sur­face coal min­ing or in con­gest­ed areas with severe par­tic­u­late mat­ter pol­lu­tion. On the seashore, salt build-up inter­feres with the insu­lat­ing capa­bil­i­ty. There are also mechan­i­cal stress­es in many envi­ron­ments due to oper­a­tion and the local weath­er con­di­tions.

NEW MATERIALS

Ceram­ic insu­la­tors have a long tra­di­tion in such appli­ca­tions. How­ev­er, they have been left behind in recent years in favor of hol­low com­pos­ite insu­la­tors. These insu­la­tors are more light­weight and eas­i­er to han­dle. Porce­lain insu­la­tors burst dur­ing an earth­quake or when van­dal­ized, dam­ag­ing sur­round­ing equip­ment in the process and, in some sit­u­a­tions, even pos­ing a risk to peo­ple.

Each indi­vid­ual fin of the sil­i­cone shield­ing is checked pri­or to deliv­ery. (© Armin Weigel)

This is why Hochspan­nungs­geräte GmbH (HSP) in Trois­dorf, Ger­many near Cologne has been rely­ing on hol­low com­pos­ite insu­la­tors for many years. The lead­ing glob­al man­u­fac­tur­er of high-volt­age bush­ings for trans­form­ers, wall bush­ings and gas-insu­lat­ed switchgear (GIS) was the first cus­tomer for which Maschi­nen­fab­rik Rein­hausen (MR) pro­duced ReCoTec® insu­la­tors in 2007. Their spe­cial fea­ture: Instead of being made of porce­lain, these insu­la­tors are com­posed of glass-fiber-rein­forced plas­tic with sil­i­cone shield­ing

MR already had a great deal of expe­ri­ence with insu­lat­ing mate­ri­als. “For over 30 years, we’ve pro­duced insu­lat­ing tubes with com­plex elec­tri­cal require­ments for use on our tap chang­ers our­selves. This is where the idea came from to get into the busi­ness of hol­low com­pos­ite insu­la­tors,” says Dr. Bernd Kem­pa, Man­ag­ing Direc­tor of Rein­hausen Pow­er Com­pos­ites GmbH.

PERFECTION FOR SAFETY

ReCoTec® insu­la­tors have rig­or­ous require­ments regard­ing mechan­i­cal loads, seal-tight­ness and dielec­tric strength. The prop­er­ties of the com­pos­ite mate­ri­als are cru­cial for the qual­i­ty and reli­a­bil­i­ty of the prod­ucts, and per­fect com­mand of the pro­duc­tion process is there­fore nec­es­sary.

ReCoTec® insu­la­tors con­sist of an insu­lat­ing tube made of glass fiber-rein­forced plas­tic (GFRP), alu­minum fit­tings and a sil­i­cone shield­ing. They are designed per­fect­ly for the respec­tive appli­ca­tion in accor­dance with spe­cif­ic cus­tomer require­ments. The lam­i­nate struc­ture of the GFRP tube is essen­tial for the mechan­i­cal and elec­tri­cal prop­er­ties.

CLOSE PARTNERSHIP

Owing to the many advan­ta­geous prop­er­ties of the inno­v­a­tive mate­ri­als, demand has grown steadi­ly for ReCoTec® hol­low com­pos­ite insu­la­tors and oth­er prod­ucts under the Rotafil® brand name. This is why MR found­ed Rein­hausen Pow­er Com­pos­ites GmbH (RPC) back in 2009. Through all the years, RPC and the first cus­tomer of hol­low com­pos­ite insu­la­tors have remained close. Last year, the 10,000th insu­la­tor was sent to HSP in Trois­dorf.

“When we start­ed pro­duc­tion of ReCoTec® ten years ago, insu­la­tors made of porce­lain were still the stan­dard. Today, hol­low com­pos­ite insu­la­tors are tak­ing over more and more of the mar­ket.” Dr. Bernd Kem­pa, Man­ag­ing Direc­tor of RPC

Dr. Kem­pa is con­fi­dent that the mar­ket for hol­low com­pos­ite insu­la­tors will con­tin­ue to grow, “Ener­gy con­sump­tion will steadi­ly increase around the world. In Chi­na and India, for exam­ple, there are many new high-volt­age direct cur­rent (HVDC) trans­mis­sion net­works for volt­ages up to 1100 kV DC. It would scarce­ly be pos­si­ble to imple­ment appli­ca­tions at these volt­age lev­els using porce­lain.”


INSULATORS IN COMPARISON

Hol­low com­pos­ite insu­la­tors Porce­lain insu­la­tors
Sil­i­cone is hydropho­bic, mean­ing that it repels water; con­t­a­m­i­na­tion rolls off eas­i­ly due to this effect. Porce­lain is not hydropho­bic and must there­fore be cleaned fre­quent­ly.
Small­er wall thick­ness­es are pos­si­ble due to the high strength of the glass-fiber-rein­forced plas­tic. This makes the insu­la­tor lighter. Porce­lain insu­la­tors require thick­er walls and have a high­er spe­cif­ic weight. They are there­fore up to 40 per­cent heav­ier.
Hol­low com­pos­ite insu­la­tors are flex­i­ble and there­fore marked­ly more resilient in the event of an earth­quake. Porce­lain insu­la­tors have a risk of break­ing dur­ing an earth­quake.
In the event of an out­age or exter­nal dam­age, hol­low com­pos­ite insu­la­tors are explo­sion-proof and do not frac­ture. If dam­aged, sharp-edged porce­lain pieces can be thrown through the air and cause addi­tion­al dam­age.
The pro­duc­tion and deliv­ery time is sub­stan­tial­ly short­er than for porce­lain insu­la­tors. With porce­lain insu­la­tors, it may be months before deliv­ery, and just fir­ing the porce­lain requires weeks.

Further information:

Learn more about ReCoTec® hol­low com­pos­ite insu­la­tors here


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